(Almost) every Saturday we review all Kickstarter campaigns in the "Games" category ending in the next week. We do a quick write up on anything we find notable here. This is written from the perspective of people looking to buy games and game accessories that offer interesting mechanics or ideas. We prefer heavy strategy games, RPG Games, miniature-heavy games, and games with real-time mechanics as opposed to party games, children's games, or very light strategy games.

We Backed

Sometimes you have to put your money where your mouth is. These are the campaigns we backed in this batch.

In Planecrafters you compete to build planes for your company by assembling the parts from a parts deck. You also have to be concerned with hiring the right pilots and engineers. I really like the idea of building your plane by assembling cards (we're actually working on a game that uses this mechanic with spaceships.)

We backed the original Dungeon Degenerates (8.9 BGG); it's quite the game. A punk rock twist on the Adventure board game with lots of 1970s-style artwork and some pretty twisted miniatures. They are offering a backing level for returning backers, and we dove in on that!

Board Games

This game really piqued our interest due the crazy monsters that appear on the cards. This looks like a pretty fun little card-based adventure game where you determine your fates by drawing cards from a deck (similar to the way 7th Continent determines win conditions.)

This is a revised edition of a game that was released in 2016 (7.5 BGG.) The goal is to compete for planets to build settlements and explore the galaxy. The game has some really neat components including a rondel-like dice selection tool and nice multi-level player mats where you stack your resources and settlements. This game is designed by the team behind La Granja which is #117 Overall board game on BGG.

This is a new game from the designers of Alien Artifacts(7.0 BGG). The game is a city-building game where you build an engine to keep your citizens happy and your environment clean. Engine-building games can have a problem where you aren't interacting much with other players, but this one appears to get around that by allowing you to block other players when they collect resources if you place your buildings in the right way.

This is an elegant 4X space exploration game with some interesting ideas. It features a unique 'baroque' sci-fi setting. The game looks a bit like The Island of El Dorado, with streamlined mechanics and simplified gameplay. This is the second game from this team, the first being Light Hunters.

This is a slickly-designed area control game where you'll control an evil corporation. It has a lot of "take that" mechanics. Beyond the nice design, we like the unique abilities each corp has. It's thematic and makes for both an interesting game mechanic and a bit of political commentary embedded in the theme.

It's impossible to ignore the art here by Kwanchai Moriya (known for the Catacombs series and a lot of other board games.) Here is the first time he's really been given free reign in the gore department, and we get some pretty neat art as a result. The game itself is a trick-taking game and plays a bit like Hearts. It is currently available on Tabletopia.

The world is ending, how will you spend your final hours? That's the question this game asks in possibly the darkest theme of any board game ever (take that, This War of Mine!) Regardless, the art is beautiful, and the game seems to be really pushing their solo mode hard. In the solo mode you will be exploring a multi-staged narrative as you attempt to discover the true nature of your existence.

A play on the popular Railroad Tycoon genre, Raccoon Tycoon appears to offer a complex and interesting commodities game wrapped in cute anthropomorphic animals. Each turn you'll decide to take a trade action to acquire goods which effects in turn affects goods value and gives you more resources to buy buildings and railroads.

RPGs

This is a useful little source book that gives you details on a variety of taverns so you can plop them into your campaign. I have found that one of the things most glossed-over in campaigns of all sizes are details on the tavern. Having a slieu of details and a cast of characters will help bring the tavern to life, and make your players more engaged in the downtime.

Survive the Night is billed as an entry level RPG that simulates a standard horror-movie trope of a bunch of teenagers in the woods. Unfortunately, the Kickstarter is very light on rules and how the game plays, and while its hit it's low goal, it doesn't seem to have much momentum.

Miscellaneous

This is a nicely-designed board game bag. I like the hiking-backpack look to it. I think this thing is insanely expensive (about $200). I have already backed and received the BoardGameGarage which goes for about half that (and can still hold Gloomhaven.)

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*None of the campaigns mentioned here are sponsored or influenced via payment, prize or other means. If we know or have a connection to someone running the campaign, we will mention it in the campaign notes. If there is a campaign you think should be mentioned here, please e-mail us and tell us what makes it special and we'll review!